..续本文上一页erson. These few different things are put together, and it”s called a person. That”s a falsehood. It”s not real, only real in the way of convention. When the time comes, the elements return to their old state. We”ve only come to stay with them for a while, so we have to let them return. The part that is earth, send back to be earth. The part that is water, send back to be water. The part that is fire, send back to be fire. The part that is air, send back to be air. Or will you try to go with them and keep something

　　 We come to rely on them for a while; when it”s time for them to go, let them go. When they come, let them come. All these phenomena (sabhava) appear and then disappear. That”s all. We understand that all these things are flowing, constantly appearing and disappearing.

　　Making offerings, listening to teachings, practicing meditation, whatever we do should be done for the purpose of developing wisdom. Developing wisdom is for the purpose of liberation, freedom from all these conditions and phenomena. When we are free, then no matter what our situation, we don”t have to suffer. If we have children we don”t have to suffer. If we work, we don”t have to suffer. If we have a house, we don”t have to suffer. It”s like a lotus in the water. “I grow in the water, but I don”t suffer because of the water. I can”t be drowned or burned, because I live in the water.” When the water ebbs and flows, it doesn”t affect the lotus. The water and the lotus can exist together without conflict. They are together yet separate. Whatever is in the water nourishes the lotus and helps it grow into something beautiful.

　　Here it”s the same for us. Wealth, home, family, all defilements of mind, they no longer defile us but rather they help us develop parami, the spiritual perfections. In a grove of bamboo, the old leaves pile up around the trees, and when the rain falls, they decompose and become fertilizer. Shoots grow and the trees develop because of the fertilizer, and we have a source of food and income. But it didn”t look like anything good at all. So be careful—in the dry season, if you set fires in the forest, they”ll burn up all the (future) fertilizer, and the fertilizer will turn into fire that burns the bamboo. Then you won”t have any bamboo shoots to eat. So if you burn the forest, you burn the bamboo fertilizer. If you burn the fertilizer, you burn the trees and the grove dies.

　　Do you understand

　　 You and your families can live in happiness and harmony with your homes and possessions, free of danger of floods or fire. If a family is flooded or burned, it is only because of the people in that family. It”s just like the bamboo”s fertilizer. The grove can be burned because of it, or the grove can grow beautifully because of it.

　　Things will grow beautifully and then not beautifully, and then become beautiful again. Growing and degenerating, then growing again and degenerating again, this is the way of worldly phenomena. If we know growth and degeneration for what they are, we can find a conclusion to them. Things grow and reach their limit. Things degenerate and reach their limit. But we remain constant. It”s like when there was a fire in Ubon city. People bemoaned the destruction and shed a lot of tears over it. But things were rebuilt after the fire, and the new buildings are actually bigger and a lot better than what we had before, and people enjoy the city more now.

　　This is how it is with the cycles of loss and development. Everything has its limits. So the Buddha wanted us to always be contemplating. While we still have life, we should think about death. Don”t consider it something far away. If you”re poor, don”t try to harm or exploit others. Face the situation and work hard to help yourself. If you”re well off, don”t become forget…

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